Past Films

No Country for Old Men (2007)

Starring: Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, Tommy Lee Jones

Director: Ethan Coen and Joel Coen

Genre(s): Drama, Thriller, Crime, Western

Rating: R

Running Time: 122 min.

Essential Coen Brothers
This new quarterly series showcases the “essential” films everyone should see on the big screen. For each month-long program, we’ll screen five films organized by one of the following themes: directors, actors, genres, and eras/movements.

Essential tickets are $9 for Adults, $8 for Students/Seniors and Members get in Free!

Summary: When a Vietnam veteran discovers two million dollars while wandering through the aftermath of a Texas drug deal gone horribly awry, his decision to abscond with the cash sets off a violent chain reaction in a stripped-down crime drama from Joel and Ethan Coen. Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) has just stumbled into the find of a lifetime. Upon discovering a bullet-strewn pickup truck surrounded by the corpses of dead bodyguards, Moss uncovers two million dollars in cash and a substantial load of heroin stashed in the back of the vehicle. Later, as an enigmatic killer who determines the fate of his victims with the flip of a coin sets out in pursuit of Moss, the disillusioned Sheriff Bell (Tommy Lee Jones) struggles to contain the rapidly escalating violence that seems to be consuming his once-peaceful Lone Star State town. Woody Harrelson, Javier Bardem, and Kelly MacDonald co-star in a distinctly American crime story that explores timeless biblical themes in a contemporary Southwestern setting. [Jason Buchanan, Rovi]

"A masterly tale of the good, the deranged and the doomed that inflects the raw violence of the west with a wry acknowledgement of the demise of codes of honour, this is frighteningly intelligent and imaginative."

- Geoff Andrew, Time Out

"No Country for Old Men looks into the unfathomable depths of evil and poses existential questions about human destiny. Meanwhile, it takes your breath away."

- Harper Barnes, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

"What makes the movie a masterpiece, however, is not the Coens' supreme command of their craft in these scenes, but their willingness to embrace the resigned worldview of McCarthy's novel."

- Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald

"Bardem is nothing less than the best movie villain since Anthony Hopkins slipped out of Hannibal Lecter's manacles, scary-smart and horrifyingly appealing, and Brolin is nothing short of a revelation."

- Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press

"No Country for Old Men is the first movie I've seen in a very long while that deserves to be called a masterpiece. It's such a stunning achievement in storytelling."

- Lou Lumenick, New York Post

"The Coens understand the stark immediacy of this tale, and they visualize it with brilliantly judged details."

- Ty Burr, Boston Globe

"An intense, nihilistic thriller as well as a model of implacable storytelling, this is a film you can't stop watching even though you very much wish you could."

- Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times

"This film is an evil delight; adapted from Cormack McCarthy's book, it's filled with suspense, pitch-black humor and one of the most memorable villains in recent cinema."